#47 United Front (4)
#47 United Front (4)
[Destruction Probability 91.53% → 86.29%]
[Karma gained: 5.24%]
[Karma 12.61%]
After I devoured the Silent Mouth, the Destruction Probability dropped by over five percent. That was almost triple the Karma I'd earned from Broken Finger, another executive. Not that all executives are created equal. A chimera like Broken Finger couldn't possibly compare to a Square Master like the Silent Mouth. Honestly, the difference was only to be expected.
'And then...'
The backlash I'd been bracing for slammed into me. Even after burning through so much mana, a fresh wave of energy—so immense it made my own reserves feel trivial—began churning inside me.
"......!"
Eun Ja-rim's eyes flew wide when the Wolf abruptly crumpled to the ground. It took her a beat to remember what he had just devoured, and her brow furrowed. There was no way consuming an essence with that much concentrated mana would end painlessly. He had to be suppressing excruciating agony. She placed a hand against his forehead, hoping to ease even a fraction of it—and nearly recoiled with a gasp.
'He's been enduring this?'
This wasn't something you could meddle with lightly. Reckless? No—if he hadn't held it back, the uncontrolled eruption of mana would have consumed everything. It was the right call, but Eun Ja-rim bit down on her lip. The Wolf stared at her for a moment, then caught the end of her sleeve in his teeth and tossed her onto his back.
"Wh-what are you—!"
My insides were a wreck. Pain Resistance meant I couldn't feel any of it, and moving around was inconvenient, but I had Regeneration. I'd be fine soon enough. More importantly, I needed to get out of here right now. Ghost Flame (C) and the Black Mist might be slowing my regeneration, but I was still inside the Juggernaut's body. I had no idea when I might get buried under its flesh again.
"Moving around in that condition...!"
I only half-heard her worried voice as I shaped footholds and stepped into the air. The Black Sun had annihilated everything except the narrow patch of ground the Juggernaut sat on, leaving a deep pit. I had to cross a fair distance before I could finally set foot on solid ground. By the time I landed, Regeneration had already mended nearly all the wounds.
'And...'
[Life Vessel consumed. Mana increases substantially.]
The moment I succeeded in suppressing and digesting the rampaging mana, the same message I'd seen after consuming the Thousand-Year Dragon Shrimp appeared. A quick check of my Status showed an insane jump of roughly fifty points. When I realized my Mana was now closing in on four hundred, a hollow laugh escaped me—until an enraged roar yanked my head around.
"——————!"
The Juggernaut. I didn't need to care about it anymore. The chasm the Black Sun had gouged into the earth had become its prison. There was no reason to keep fighting an endlessly regenerating flesh monster.
'That takes care of that.'
But it wasn't over. The System's achievement condition still hadn't been met. Watching the storm raging in the distance, the Wolf steadied his breathing. The Assault Team was on the verge of annihilation. This really was the final step.
—Eun Ja-rim watched the Jirisan Warg Alpha gaze into the distance and let out a long breath. The early warning signs of mental exhaustion made her head throb, but there was still something she had to ask. She couldn't afford to collapse here.
"...Answer me."
When the Jirisan Warg Alpha turned his crimson gaze on her, she froze for a second, but she gritted her teeth and didn't look away. If she missed this chance, it felt like it would never come again. So much about the Jirisan Warg Alpha's actions was difficult to reconcile with calling him a monster. If all he'd wanted was to hunt the Budding Evils, would he have told them to save the people on the west coast?
He had rooted out the turncoats. He had acted for humanity's sake.
If he weren't a monster, everyone would have cheered the Jirisan Warg Alpha's every move. A few questions might linger, but everything he'd done so far had been more principled than almost anyone else's.
"I understand now that you bear no Malice."
But... why?
Why was a monster aiding humanity? Fifty years since the gates first opened, and humanity was teetering on the brink of annihilation. The surface might look peaceful, but Eun Ja-rim knew better than anyone how false that peace was.
"So then..."
'Who can guarantee what comes next?'
The words of the Three Swordsman, spoken long ago, echoed in her mind, and she bit her lip. Humanity was struggling to break free, yet destruction crept closer by the day. This attack was only one part of it.
'But.'
Here, in this place, Eun Ja-rim had glimpsed Hope. The fact that she had fought alongside a monster—alongside the Jirisan Warg Alpha—still felt impossible to believe, even now. Had she seen something that wasn't real? Was this a dream? It couldn't be, and yet courage wouldn't come. If the answer she received was different from the one she expected...
"Kyuuu~!"
—At the sound, as if telling her to take heart, Eun Ja-rim closed her eyes. There was no way the Jirisan Warg Alpha was suppressing Eun Gong. It was all a misunderstanding. No reason to be afraid. Reaffirming everything the Wolf had done, Eun Ja-rim quietly steadied her breathing.
When she opened her eyes again, the glow of his crimson gaze no longer frightened her. So she asked the question her heart demanded.
"You and me... can we stand together?"
***
After long moments frozen in terror, Kim Joo-seop finally shook free of it. Hurrying to rejoin the Assault Team, he picked up a human presence—Eun Ja-rim, slumped on the ground and pulling herself together—and his face lit up.
"Oh, Disciple of the Spear Saint...?"
But his voice trailed off, bemused. Something about her condition seemed off. She had a hand pressed to her chest, steadying her breathing, and her expression was dazed. When he touched her shoulder—she looked almost like she was seeing phantoms—
"......!"
Eun Ja-rim flinched hard, recoiling so sharply that Kim Joo-seop's own eyes went round with surprise.
"Wh-what's the matter?"
"...It's nothing."
Her reply came a beat late as she hurried forward. But the words she'd just heard kept replaying in her mind.
'...It isn't over yet.'
'Wait for me. Until I come find you.'
Eun Ja-rim tightened her grip on her spear. When the Wolf came to her soon, all her questions would be answered.
"Let's move. We need to regroup with the Assault Team."
Despite those words, her gaze lingered helplessly in the direction the Jirisan Warg Alpha had vanished.
***
"Damn it..."
Kang Tae-ho's shoulder blade was broken and his whole body ached. He glanced to his side and heaved a breath. Baek Gun-tae, collapsed. Ju-gyo, sprawled. He'd be lying next to them soon enough.
"You fucking old bastard..."
The sword wreathed in blue flame drooped. Gapju, without a scratch on him, still said nothing. As his stamina began to wane, Kang Tae-ho scowled.
"Say something already!"
He brought the Conqueror's Great Sword down with force, but Gapju simply raised his blade and blocked. The strength Kang Tae-ho once possessed was long gone. A casual flick of the sword shattered the balance of power and sent Kang Tae-ho hurtling backward.
"...Shit."
Scrubbing a hand over his face, Kang Tae-ho spat out the dirt that had gotten into his mouth. He'd had several chances to end this. But Gapju—no, Kang Hoon—hadn't taken any of them.
"What, you grew a conscience right at the end? If that's the case..."
A monstrous surge of mana began to gather in the colossal Conqueror's Great Sword. Kang Tae-ho's full, sincere power would've measured up to any of the Seven Heroes. Pulling in every drop of mana he had left, Kang Tae-ho swung—
"Then you shouldn't have joined hands with that filth in the first place!"
—And space began to warp. Waves of mana rippled outward, and the already ruined landscape was upended once more. The earth shook, a gale whipped up—and Gapju, without visible difficulty, negated Kang Tae-ho's attack. Then the blue flames visible beyond the helm flared with a chilling light.
"...You're right."
In this fight, he spoke for the first time. He nodded, as if he'd shaken something off and settled into calm acceptance.
"You've gotten stronger."
Kang Tae-ho tilted his head to the side. He'd let himself hope. A sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, he was brainwashed or being controlled. He'd held onto that.
"Stronger...?"
That foolish, faint hope shattered into dust. There was no room for doubt: Gapju—no, Kang Hoon—was wielding that sword by his own will. Kang Tae-ho crushed the grip of his weapon as if to pulverize it.
"Ha. Right. Decided to open your mouth now, have you?"
His lip curled with revulsion as he sneered at him.
"Why? Did laying hands on your own flesh and blood get a little awkward? Couldn't quite bring yourself to kill your own son?"
He threw Muno in his face—how he'd killed your comrades just fine. Kang Hoon came to an abrupt halt. He seemed to consider for a moment, then slowly raised his sword.
"...I did, didn't I."
The words of admission had barely fallen when Kang Hoon surged forward. Kang Tae-ho's expression twisted openly. Kang Hoon closed the distance in an instant and brought the massive blade crashing down. Kang Tae-ho gripped the Conqueror's Great Sword's hilt and braced the flat of the blade against his forearm, barely holding on—but the blow drove him so deep into the ground he couldn't see his own feet.
"You fuck..."
He'd barely shaken off the first strike when the next one came flying. Driven back several meters with his feet still planted in the ground, Kang Tae-ho wrenched himself free and rolled just in time—only to catch Kang Hoon's kick and go sailing through the air again.
"—Hk!"
Whatever sentiment Kang Hoon had left for his own blood—whatever final hesitation remained—he had finally cast it aside. He flew at Kang Tae-ho. When the blue-flame sword came down, Kang Tae-ho threw himself sideways to dodge.
"Damn..."
The earth split open. It wasn't a fight. Kang Tae-ho was worn past his limit; Kang Hoon was still in pristine condition. His hands trembled so badly he could barely hold his sword. Watching Kang Hoon approach at a slow walk, Kang Tae-ho asked,
"...Why did you do it?"
Instead of answering, Kang Hoon raised his blade. There was no closing a power gap this vast. Nobody in the Assault Team could have stood against him. ...Far in the distance, the dark clouds had lifted, so it seemed things had been wrapped up somehow.
'Please don't come back.'
Kang Tae-ho was praying the Assault Team would stay away when he resigned himself to the sword descending toward his head—
—and abruptly, Kang Hoon spun around.
"......!"
He cut down the black mist that had been creeping up behind him, erasing it without a trace, but Kang Tae-ho didn't miss the opening. He slashed the exposed back, tearing through Gapju's armor, and in the same motion gained distance, threw the Conqueror's Great Sword into subspace, then hoisted Ju-gyo and Baek Gun-tae onto his shoulders and clenched his teeth.
"Fuck..."
Ju-gyo wasn't breathing. Carrying the corpse, Kang Tae-ho ran without hesitation. Kang Hoon made to pursue, then stopped with a sigh and raised his sword again.
Even for him, the black mana wasn't something to take lightly. He leveled his blade at the Wolf, who had appeared in the direction he turned, and the Wolf swallowed hard.
'.......'
Even after vomiting up every scrap of the black mana I'd seized with Snatch Devour, I'd only managed to buy a few seconds. The moment my eyes met Kang Hoon's again, I could feel death closing in. Prediction? Intuition? Perception? Worthy of his title as the Sword Saint of a generation past, his next movements were completely unreadable. As if he possessed Intuition and Perception surpassing my own.
'It's impossible, as expected.'
Kang Tae-ho could barely hold out because he was Kang Tae-ho. The current me wasn't a match for this.
'I knew that from the start.'
I knew all too well what a monster the current Kang Hoon was. No amount of struggling would let me stand against him. Not me, not anyone from the Assault Team—any of them would meet certain death here with not even a one-percent chance of survival.
'Right. Any of the Assault Team.'
THOOM— THOOM— THOOM—!
"——————!"
Footsteps that shook the earth. A roar that filled heaven and earth as the presence revealed its full grandeur.
[Snowell]
[Length: 67.9m] [Height: 28.7m] [Weight: 794t]
[STR 682] [AGI 563] [VIT 659] [MP 637]
[Skill List]
[Divine Power (B)] [Great Magic Power (B)] [Rock Skin (B)] [Mitigation (C)] [Rapid Recovery (C)] [Excellent Intuition (D)] [Pain Nullification (D)] [Swimming (F)]
The colossal white lion. The 2nd Sector boss, Snowell. A boss that, once you woke it, wouldn't stop unless Frenzy triggered. The white lion that had been chasing me revealed itself, and I immediately cloaked myself in Stealth—just as the anomaly began. Watching the skies of the 2nd Sector stain blood-red, I gritted my teeth.
'Frenzy, right before Closure...!'
I had to get out of Neverland as fast as possible before the dungeon sealed shut. A desperate flight—I turned to run, but a new message made my eyes flash.
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.29 → Lv.30]
[Evolution conditions met.]
—The moment I'd been waiting for had finally arrived.